How updated Vatican rules on validating supernatural appearances of Mary will affect the famed pilgrimage site of Medjugorje

People pray at a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Zeljko Milicevic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

For over 40 years, six people from Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, have claimed to see and speak with the Virgin Mary. For almost as long, hordes of pilgrims have traveled to visit sites of the virgin’s alleged appearance and to observe the seers’ daily trances.

The Vatican has never approved the pilgrimage or issued any official judgment of the visionaries – until now.